The Guardian has released "Toxic America," a "major series to investigate the risks of contamination in our food, water, and cosmetics." Articles in the series include: A comparison between the "stringent health and environment review" that the European Union will apply to foods edited using CRISPR-Cas9 and the perceived lack of regulation for similar foods in the United States; An examination of nanoparticles, "which are largely unregulated in the US," and their use in foods; A discussion of additives "with industrial applications" banned in Europe but approved for use in the United States, such as materials that appear in "yoga mats, pesticides, hair straighteners, explosives and petroleum products"; and An interactive tool allowing readers to identify their grocery choices and purporting to inform them about "what additives, pesticides and antibiotics" are in their selections.
Tag Archives CRISPR
U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA) Commissioner Scott Gottlieb has issued a statement announcing the agency's Plant and Animal Biotechnology Innovation Action Plan. Gottlieb describes the plan as identifying priorities in three areas: (i) "advancing human and animal health by promoting product innovation and applying modern, efficient and risk-based regulatory pathways;" (ii) "strengthening public outreach and communication regarding the FDA’s approach to innovative plant and animal biotechnology;" and (iii) "increasing engagement with domestic and international partners on biotechnology issues." The plan indicates that FDA will "adopt a comprehensive policy framework for the development and regulatory oversight of animal biotechnology products, including for intentionally genetically altered animals and the food and drug products derived from them." The statement also announced that the agency's Center for Veterinary Medicine will host a webinar on genome editing in animals on December 3, 2018.
The Court of Justice for the European Union has held that techniques to edit an organism’s genes without inserting foreign DNA—such as CRISPR/Cas9—result in the creation of genetically modified organisms (GMOs) subject to the EU GMO Directive. Confédération paysanne v. Premier ministre, No. C-528/16 (CJEU, entered July 25, 2018). The plaintiff, a French agricultural union, argued that French legislation exempting organisms produced with mutagenesis techniques such as CRISPR from GMO regulation conflicts with EU legislation governing GMOs. The court found that the mutagenesis techniques “alter the genetic material of an organism in a way that does not occur naturally, within the meaning of that provision. It follows that organisms obtained by means of techniques/methods of mutagenesis must be considered to be GMOs within the meaning of [the GMO Directive].”
